Template

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Template

Inlay Waste

Flush-trimming cutter bits with shank-mounted ball bearing always have to be lowered deep enough for the ball bearing to be on the same level as the template (1). This is why the cutting depth cannot be below a certain minimum. If the cutter is too long, the template has to be made thicker. Such cutters are available in different cutting-edge lengths - the shortest one I know of has a 1/2" (12.7 mm)-long cutting edge.

Template guides are an alternative to ball-bearing cutter bits. They are fastened on the router base, centered on the cutter bit. One drawback of this method is that using a 1:1 template is no longer possible. This is, however, offset by the fact that the cutting depth can be chosen freely. The template has to be placed at a distance x from the actual routing line (2). The offset x equals half the difference between the diameter of the guiding ring and that of the cutter bit.

Precise fitting of inlays is possible with an additional ring fastened on the template guide. The difference between the outside diameter and the inside diameter of the ring divided by two has to be the same as the diameter of the router bit. You only need one template with an offset of x (see above) plus router bit diameter. The cavity is routed with the ring stacked on (a), and the piece to be routed without the ring (b). The ring should be fastened with a tiny allen screw.

The picture shows a template guide (3) with additional ring (4) and a cutter bit of proper size (5). The allen key (6) is for tightening the tiny allen screw.

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Planing can be done either by hand, with a router or a planer. Planing by hand will only produce satisfactory results if you have a lot of practice and experience in adjusting and sharpening the blade. Although a beginner will, of course, not have much of the experience needed, hand planing is certainly a skill well worth

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Scrapers

Scrapers allow better and faster smoothing of surfaces than would be possible with sandpaper. If you have never used a scraper before, why not try your hand at one now - after all there is no better woodworking tool than this one, which is basically a sharp-edged metal blade that is held at an angle to the wood surface and thus planes off wood. Scrapers come in different shapes and sizes, the thinner ones often being more versatile. Very thin scrapers made of extra-hard steel are also very useful. Sandvik is one manufacturer of high-quality scrapers.

Any hard steel can be turned into a scraper. Blunt metal bandsaw blades of large workshop machines constitute an ideal material for making narrow scrapers - just grind off their teeth.

If the steel blade is blunt and you get wood dust rather than small shavings, the blade needs sharpening. To do this, use a fine file to file the edges straight and square to the scraper surface. After that work each edge with a sharpening stone, carefully removing all filing marks. By using a piece of wood it is easier to hold the scraper at a right angle (10). Putting the scraper onto the workbench on a block of wood and sharpening it on the sharpening stone is to be recommended more strongly, though.

The above-mentioned steps only need to be taken when the edges have become blunt. For in-between sharpening of worn scraper edges the following two steps are sufficient.

Step one: Bend the outward-pointing burr of the scraper back with a burnisher, a tool made of hardened round steel.You can also use the smooth surface of a round file handle. Put the blade on the surface of the table so that it projects slightly over the table edge slightly. Then move the burnisher along the edge at a slight angle, pressing it down all the time as shown in picture 11.

Step two: Bend the burr at the edge of the scraper back towards the outside as shown in picture 12. It should form a mini hook now. Burnishing tools such as the Timberland Tools one shown below help to keep the correct angles and make sharpening a scraper a breeze. Other useful burnishing tools are available from Lee Valley& Veritas.

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Sawblade

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Sawing tools

Curved lines can be cut with either a European bow saw, a jigsaw or a bandsaw. If you prefer a hand saw, a lot of patience and practice will again be required, and you should make sure that the teeth are correctly set. However, I have not yet met anyone who would cut out the body of a guitar by hand. Although a jigsaw will also do the job, a bandsaw is much more commonly used. It doesn't even have to be a big one - for building electric guitars a benchtop model will do.

The smallest radius that can be sawed is determined by the width of the sawblade (1). If relief cuts or holes are made, a wider blade can be used as well (2). When using a jigsaw - where the blade is only guided at one point - making such relief cuts or holes at all points where the curve changes direction is absolutely necessary (3).

Sanding tools

For sanding wood surfaces you can use a countless number of products and machines. Sanding machines such as a random orbit sander (4) save a lot of time and hard work. Always have sandpaper of different grits (for example 80, 100 and 120) ready at hand. Whenever you do any sanding remember to protect yourself against dust. Some way of removing and collecting dust would be ideal. This could be done with a bag fastened on the machine, or better still, by connecting a vacuum cleaner hose directly to the machine.

Home-made spindle sander. In my corner of the world a lot of additional holders for power drills are commercially available (I use one of these for holding the power drill horizontal while winding pickups). All drills over here have a standardized “neck” that is 43 mm in diameter and fits into one of the holders.

With a drill stand (5), which is widely available (at least in Germany and Austria), I converted my power drill into a simple

Japanese Tools

Japanese chisels (a) have an extremely fine blade that is hammered onto a softer metal core while the metal is in a red-hot state. This way of making leads to blows being softened and allows for the metal of the blade to be very hard and brittle. Japanese chisels are extremely sharp, but also very sensitive. This is why they should only be used for fine, intricate work. Only use Japanese waterstones for sharpening such chisels.

Japanese saws (b) have a particularly fine blade that allows making very fine cuts. During use the teeth point towards the user and the saw has to be pulled. If such a thin saw had to be used like a Western one, it would immediately bend; but because it is pulled it remains straight. Since discovering it I have used only this type of saw for precision-cutting.

There are two types of Japanese saws: one with stiffened back and teeth suited for making both cross-grain and along-the- grain cuts (b, right), and another with slightly wider-set teeth on one edge for making cuts along the grain and finer-set teeth on the other edge for cuts across the grain (b, left). This second type allows making deeper cuts. The sawblades of the saws shown in the picture above can be replaced if necessary.

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Record RM2075 vise

This compact and inexpensive vise is better than nothing. The jaw capacity can be doubled from 89mm (31/2") to 178mm (7") by removing the front jaw from the body and inserting it in the back, the latter beeing mounted on a 360 degrees swivelling base. By using a specially shaped wooden caul which just rests on the surface as shown above, it is possible to safely fix non-parallel work like for instance a guitar neck.